Landing Gear Strut Forgings — Oleo-Pneumatic Shock Strut Piston and Cylinder Structural Forgings Absorbing Touchdown Impact Energy
Shivam Forge manufactures forged landing gear strut structural components — oleo-pneumatic shock strut piston and cylinder forgings absorbing touchdown impact energy and carrying ground-maneuvering loads — in high-strength alloy steel and titanium, engineered with manufacturing process control aligned to AS9100 quality management principles and supporting AMS material documentation requirements. Distinct from the general aerospace forging capability covered elsewhere on this site. Rajkot, India. Call +91-9265772827.
A landing gear strut occupies a structural role few other aircraft components share: it is simultaneously the primary load path carrying the aircraft's full weight into the ground during every taxi, takeoff roll, and landing, and the mechanism that absorbs the vertical impact energy of touchdown itself, typically through an oleo-pneumatic arrangement where a piston compresses into a cylinder against a combination of hydraulic fluid and compressed gas. This dual role — structural load path and energy-absorbing damper in one assembly — means the piston and cylinder forgings have to be engineered against a genuinely severe combined loading picture: the single highest instantaneous load event most of the airframe structure ever experiences is a hard or off-center landing, layered on top of the more routine but still substantial cyclic loading from ordinary taxi, takeoff, and landing cycles across the aircraft's operating life, and further complicated by side loads from crosswind landings and ground turning maneuvers that the strut must resist in addition to the primarily vertical impact load it's designed around. Because a landing gear strut failure has consequences with essentially no margin for tolerance, strut forgings are typically engineered to a safe-life design philosophy with particular emphasis on fracture toughness — resistance to crack propagation once a flaw exists — rather than yield strength alone, distinguishing strut design somewhat from aerospace structures optimized primarily against high-cycle fatigue under comparatively lower peak loads. The strut's external exposure to runway debris, moisture, de-icing fluid, and hydraulic fluid adds a corrosion protection dimension that is equally non-negotiable, since a landing gear component cannot be taken out of service for inspection as readily as many other airframe structures.
Forged piston blanks for oleo-pneumatic landing gear shock struts, machined to precision bore-sealing surface finish and dimensional tolerance, in high-strength low-alloy steel or titanium grades matched to the target aircraft's landing weight class.
Forged cylinder/outer barrel blanks housing the piston and hydraulic-pneumatic charge, engineered for combined internal pressure containment and the bending/side-load reaction the strut carries during off-center touchdown and ground maneuvering.
Forged trunnion and attachment fitting components connecting the strut assembly to the airframe structure, carrying the full landing and ground load reaction into the wing or fuselage structure.
Forged torque link and side-load bracing fitting components maintaining piston-to-cylinder rotational alignment and reacting the side loads a strut experiences during crosswind landings and ground turning.
Material grade selection among high-strength low-alloy steels and titanium alloys, balancing strength-to-weight against the fracture toughness safe-life landing gear design philosophy requires.
Forging process and heat treatment oriented toward the fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth resistance safe-life landing gear component design specifies, addressing both the singular hard-landing load case and routine cyclic ground loading.
Corrosion protection specification appropriate to the strut's external exposure to runway debris, moisture, de-icing fluid, and hydraulic fluid throughout extended service intervals between scheduled inspection.
Manufacturing process control aligned to AS9100 quality management principles, with full material chemistry, mechanical property, and NDT documentation supporting AMS-referenced specification requirements.
Landing gear is sometimes described, not entirely unfairly, as the most abused structural system on an aircraft: it is retracted and extended thousands of times over an airframe's service life, exposed continuously to runway debris and weather when deployed, and — at the moment that matters most — expected to absorb the full kinetic energy of touchdown reliably, every single time, regardless of how firm or off-center that touchdown happens to be. At the center of this system sits the shock strut, typically an oleo-pneumatic design in which a piston compresses into a cylinder against a combination of hydraulic fluid and compressed gas, converting the vertical velocity of touchdown into controlled, damped deceleration rather than transmitting that impact directly and undamped into the airframe.
What makes strut forging design genuinely demanding is the combination of load cases the piston, cylinder, and attachment fittings all have to survive simultaneously across very different points in the aircraft's operating life. There is the singular, severe case: a hard or off-center landing, which represents close to the single highest instantaneous structural load the airframe experiences anywhere, and which the strut must absorb without any crack or flaw propagating toward failure. There is the routine, repeated case: ordinary taxi, takeoff roll, and landing cycles, thousands of them across the aircraft's service life, which demand genuine fatigue resistance under more moderate but far more frequent loading. And there is the off-axis case: crosswind landings and ground turning maneuvers introduce side loads the strut and its torque link must react in addition to the primarily vertical impact load the assembly is fundamentally designed around. Safe-life design philosophy for landing gear components places particular weight on fracture toughness — the material's resistance to propagating a crack once one exists — specifically because of that first, severe load case, where yield strength alone would be an incomplete measure of the component's actual safety margin.
Material selection and manufacturing process both follow from this loading picture. High-strength low-alloy steels and titanium alloys are the dominant material families for strut piston and cylinder forgings, chosen for the specific combination of strength-to-weight ratio and fracture toughness the target aircraft's landing weight class calls for, with forging process and heat treatment oriented toward developing that toughness rather than maximizing strength in isolation. Corrosion protection receives equally serious attention, since the strut assembly is externally exposed to runway debris, moisture, de-icing fluid, and hydraulic fluid throughout extended intervals between scheduled inspection — a landing gear component that develops corrosion-initiated cracking between inspections is a genuinely serious safety concern, which is why corrosion protection specification is treated as inseparable from the base material and forging quality decision, not an afterthought applied at final finishing.
For airframe and landing gear system manufacturers sourcing forged strut piston, cylinder, and attachment fitting components, Shivam Forge manufactures high-strength steel and titanium landing gear strut forgings with manufacturing process control aligned to AS9100 quality management principles and full AMS-referenced material documentation. Contact our engineering team at +91-9265772827 or sales@shivamforge.com with your strut drawing and material specification for a manufacturability review and quotation.
This page covers the strut piston, cylinder, trunnion, and attachment fitting forgings specific to the oleo-pneumatic shock strut assembly — the structure that both supports aircraft weight on the ground and absorbs touchdown impact energy. Our general aerospace forging page covers the broader range of aerospace structural and rotating component forgings; landing gear strut components have their own distinct fracture toughness and safe-life design considerations that this page addresses specifically.
A landing gear strut experiences the single highest instantaneous load event most of the airframe structure ever sees, during a hard or off-center landing. Safe-life design philosophy for this application places particular emphasis on fracture toughness — resistance to crack propagation once a flaw exists — because that governs how the structure behaves under the rare but severe peak load case, not just how it behaves under routine repeated loading.
High-strength low-alloy steels and titanium alloys are the primary material families, selected based on the target aircraft's landing weight class and the strength-to-weight versus fracture toughness tradeoff the specific application calls for. Provide your material specification and load case and our engineering team will confirm forging feasibility.
Our manufacturing process control is aligned to AS9100 quality management principles, and full material chemistry, mechanical property, and NDT documentation is provided supporting AMS-referenced specification requirements. Contact our engineering team directly to discuss current quality certification status for your specific program.
Corrosion protection is specified appropriate to the strut's external exposure to runway debris, moisture, de-icing fluid, and hydraulic fluid — this is a non-negotiable requirement given how much longer landing gear components typically remain in service between scheduled inspections compared to many other airframe structures.
Why Choose Shivam Forge
Shivam Forge delivers precision hot-forged components from our integrated Shapar, Rajkot facility — covering forging, CNC machining, heat treatment, and quality inspection under one roof.
